Chapter 41: RS01-Pi, Day 6, continued

After Steve left Maria's room, he met Betty in the hallway, and told her, "Whatever you and your friends ultimately decide, you're coming home with me until you decide to the contrary. I just spoke to Maria, and I can't wait to get home, so I can wash the conversation from my brain with liquor. If the rest of them are as bad as she is, I'm leaving them all here to rot."

Betty flinched, and he immediately apologized for dumping that on her. She brushed off the apology, and said, "No, fortunately the rest of them are a lot less obnoxious. They're nearly as bigoted, but anyone with an ounce of self-respect seems like a noble to them, and they defer to you immediately. You'll have them on their knees the second you walk into the room. And they'll damn near piss their pants if you show up as angry as you are now."

"Are you saying I should give them a chance to live with us?" Steve asked, slightly puzzled.

"Not a chance in hell of that," Betty said. "Like I said, they'll defer to you immediately, but anything like the lifestyle you're implying we'll end up with would offend their sense of morality, and they will make no end of trouble about it. No, you'll have to find someone else to stash them with, assuming you don't let Raul out after we're gone."

Steve shook his head. "No," he said, "if they were the kind of vermin that I just left, I'd do just that, but Johnny's death can't go unpunished, and the rapes of you women are if anything worse. I hold Maria responsible for some of that too, since she was so in favor of everything Raul did, but I'd cheerfully kill him, which I wouldn't do to her.

"Did you get a survey of everyone's opinion? And have you checked on Tina yet?"

Betty nodded to the first question, then changed to a head-shake on the second. "Everyone that's met you is ready to go right now," she said. "The rest are willing, but not as eager as the ones you've talked to. I was on my way to talk to Beth, and check on Tina, when I ran into you."

Steve said, "OK, then let's both go do that." As Steve and Betty turned towards the door to Raul's room, the room monitor spoke up. "Steve, I have a message from Zookeeper for you. It's marked private and extremely urgent." Steve looked at Betty, and said, "You go ahead; I'll be right there."

Steve stepped into an unoccupied bedroom and closed the door. "Play message from Zookeeper," he instructed.

"Raul has terminated himself," said Zookeeper's voice, "He requested a meal, then used the cutlery to sever his jugular vein. He bled to death shortly thereafter."

Steve shook his head. Were they that alien? He'd said 'food and drink only', but he hadn't thought to forbid eating utensils. He should have specified that he considered Raul a suicide risk, but he'd had other issues on his mind at the time.

"Voice connection to Zookeeper," he said, after a moment. When Zookeeper answered, Steve spoke. "Put this into the standing orders for future confinements. Those under confinement are to be given pre-cut foods, and no sharp implements. Unless otherwise noted, they are to be considered suicide risks, and prevented from harming themselves until their case has been resolved. Do not blame yourselves too harshly; I was negligent in my orders concerning Raul's treatment, so there's more than enough blame to go around. Please refrigerate the body until we can make some kind of burial arrangements."

Zookeeper responded, saying, "Thank you for your kind words. We do feel remorse, as the entire incident was provoked by our sloppy actions. You spoke earlier about mixing homosexuals with homophobes. How are we to determine if an individual belongs to one of these groups? We have combined seventeen other pairs of groups for similar reasons, and we fear the outcome here will be duplicated.'"

Steve shook his head, "It's not something that is that easy to pick out. Homosexuals were subject to persecution and harassment in many Earth cultures, so they tend to deny their nature if asked in the wrong way. Homophobes are less likely to hide what they are, but unless the subject comes up, they look and act no differently than anyone else. You'll have to interview the relevant people, or better yet, have a trustworthy human do the interviews. It won't be me; I'm up to my neck in this mess, and it's not looking like it's going to be cleaned up any time soon."

Zookeeper replied, "Very well. We will do as you say. Continue your work; if you have any needs, tell us, and we will provide whatever help we can. Raul's body will be stored as you request until we are given further instructions. Goodbye."

The connection ended, and Steve left the room, and headed for Raul's. When he got there, he buzzed for entrance, and said, "It's Steve, is it OK for me to come in?"

"Yes," came Beth's voice, "Come right in, Steve."

Steve walked in, and saw Tina sitting upright on the bed. She cringed away from him when she saw him, which wasn't good, but was a great deal better than her utter lack of reaction the last time he'd seen her.

Beth stroked Tina's back, and said, "It's OK, Steve's a good one. He stopped Raul, and sent him away; he's going to help all of us, and protect us from Raul and anyone like him."

Steve spoke quietly, so as to avoid spooking Tina, and said, "Actually, Raul won't be bothering anyone ever again. I told the aliens to confine him, and apparently he snapped under the strain, because he killed himself."

"Show. Me."

Steve and the room's other two occupants stared at Tina; she'd croaked the words out individually, as though each one came at enormous cost. Steve quickly spoke to the room monitor, requesting an image of Raul's body. One appeared on a screen on the wall opposite the bed, and Tina stared at it intently before rasping out another single-word comment, "Good," followed a moment later by, "Bastard." She turned her face away, and buried it in Beth's shoulder. She started to sob, and was soon crying freely.

Steve nodded to Betty, and the two of them stepped out into the hallway. "I'm amazed at her progress," Steve said, "If she continues like this, she may actually survive. I have to say I really doubted she would when I left her to find you."

Betty nodded, "Yes, I agree. There's still a long way to go, but at least there's hope, now."

Steve asked, "Did you get a chance to talk to Beth about moving in to my home?"

Betty nodded again, "Yes, and Tina was even able to indicate she'd be OK with it, though I got nervous about that when she cringed away from you. It will be quite a while before she's out in public, though."

Steve said, "I can understand why. I'll start making calls, and getting you people transferred. Then I have to go talk to the stone bitch again, to tell her her top dog isn't coming back. I'm not looking forward to that."

Steve returned to the room he'd used to take Zookeeper's message, and established a call to Anna.

"I can't say that things are under control, but at least the worst flames are out. You were right; we're getting ten new family members. The women that lived with the gay guy are all moving in with us. I don't know what we're going to do with the ones that lived with his murderer, because he's killed himself in jail. I know they're not moving in with us.

"You won't have to worry about 'competition' for my attentions any time soon. After he murdered the gay guy, whose name was Johnny, by the way, Raul started raping Johnny's room-mates. He damn near killed a couple of them.

"You'll have to explain to the girls what's going on; they'll need to double-up on rooms until we can get the housing situation restructured. I hope I misunderstood him, but I think Zookeeper told me that I'm in charge of humanity's living arrangements from now on."

Tears were running down Anna's cheeks, but she managed to speak clearly as she told Steve that she understood, and that they'd have a place for all the women to live in an hour or so. Steve thanked her, and told her to thank the girls for him, then ended the call.

Steve left the room, and tracked down Betty, who was finishing up her status reports by updating a now-properly-dressed Mary and Faith. "It will be at least an hour before things are ready for you at home, so there's no rush to get ready. You should all pick temporary room mates; you'll be two to a room for a while. Can you introduce me to the rest of your house mates?"

She nodded, and led Steve out of the room, and into the room next door. Leslie Clarke and Shelby Morrow could have been twins, except for their skin color and their hair; Leslie was a pale Caucasian, and Shelby was black as coal. They were both tiny, elven women, Leslie with straight blonde hair and Shelby with tightly curled locks. Both had small, girlish hips and butts, but nicely shaped breasts, as best Steve could tell with their clothes on.

Unlike Mary and Faith, who seemed to be coping with their assaults by indulging in gallows humor, Leslie and Shelby seemed to have gotten through the situation relatively unscathed. They were both glad to see him, and there was no haunted look in their eyes. Anna might be getting some requests for Steve's attention earlier than he would have guessed.

Steve spoke to them briefly, reassuring them that they were welcome in his home, and that his wife would feel the same way, and that there were no strings attached to the offer. It wasn't a difficult sell, they both seemed to have decided he was trustworthy just from Betty's description of his behavior.

When Steve met Mercedes Bester, she was laughing. She didn't sound hysterical, so he smiled at her, and asked was was so funny. "I've been talking to Linda about what Abby's doing. She's got one of those magic dildos up her ass, healing the damage Raul did, but she's trying to get drunk, and it keeps sobering her up."

Steve shook his head, and managed not to laugh. Mercedes seemed the best-adjusted of the women he'd talked to so far; Betty was a close second, but Steve wondered how she'd hold up once she wasn't busy trying to keep the rest of the women from falling apart. When Betty excused herself to go intervene in the Linda/Abby mess, Steve asked Mercedes why she seemed so calm.